Regulators target lending abuse

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State regulators are moving to curb abusive tactics and loose standards used by some mortgage lenders offering unconventional loans with interest-only and multiple-payment options.

An estimated 10 percent of the U.S. population, or 30 million people, are at risk of falling into financial trouble because they used such easy-money loans with no down payments to buy houses, leaving them with little or no equity in their homes and vulnerable to sharply rising interest rates, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The majority of mortgage lenders in the United States are not banks, so they are not covered by rules issued in December by the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and three other federal banking agencies to clamp down on the questionable lending practices, which have been encouraging homeowners to accumulate record levels of high-risk mortgage debt.

Lenders that are not banks or owned by banks are regulated by states, but few states have set strict credit standards or required disclosure of sharply higher monthly payments that occur as loans are adjusted to include higher interest and principal payments.

Now, concern about the growth of aggressive and deceptive practices by some lenders is prompting state regulators, like their federal counterparts, to consider issuing rules or guidance to ensure that rogue lenders do not continue to offer exotic loans in a regulatory vacuum.

Innovative loans with backloaded payment schedules have "inherent risks," as they can multiply a borrower's debt load within months or years, and even prevent the lender from accruing principal in a declining market -- raising dangers for lenders and consumers alike, said Neil Milner, president of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

"The risks associated with these products are exacerbated by risk-layering," such as requiring no down payment or income documentation to get the loans, he said, at a time when "residential real-estate values are showing signs of peaking."

Problems with the loans are starting to crop up now that the housing boom has shown signs of ending and home sales and prices are turning down in some overheated areas.

Foreclosures in New Hampshire skyrocketed by 52 percent in the past seven months because "homeowners who financed with an interest-only, adjustable-rate or discounted-rate mortgage were unprepared when their mortgage payments increased anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent," said James Kenney, co-founder of ForeclosuresNH.com, a reporting service.

In addition to structuring loans so that some borrowers may never pay down principal and, thus, may be more inclined to go into default, some lenders also have been offering risky loans to consumers with little borrowing experience or histories of delinquency and bankruptcy. Such borrowers are considered the most likely to go into default.